Hip hop artist turned indie rocker, Gio, the moniker of Giovanni Agosta, is set to release his debut EP this late June.
The first taste of it comes with the lead single, ‘Old Dusty Road’, which was released on Friday February 7.
Agosta started making music when he was around 12, tinkering away on his guitar and making melodies in his room, so the EP has been a long time coming.
“I was never making any full songs or anything like that, it was more having it there and I would sit in my room and play. But then it wasn’t until I was seventeen or so that I thought, ‘I actually want to record some stuff and take it a bit more seriously’.”
So, he tried his hand at hip hop between the ages 17 and 20 before navigating his way back to his acoustic sound, most notably in his 2019 single, ‘Your Face’.
Now, Agosta is ready to release his first EP, Finding Milly’s Address, this late June. The newest collection of work, he notes, has strong acoustic roots, however, each track has different productions. So expect to hear drums and electronics in the final work.
“I think overall it’s probably indie rock. That’s where I’d place it. But I like the – I don’t how to say it – like the jangle that ‘60s rock had. Like, if you ever listen to Tom Petty or maybe like Bob Dylan, it makes the guitar sound very jangley and very flowy.
“So, it’s indie rock but I wanted to put that ‘60s flavour to it. If I had to put a word to it, that’s what I would call it.”
Besides some spoken word elements, Agosta admits the EP predominantly steers clear from the hip hop of his past.
“There’s nothing really that screams hip hop. It was a complete sea change,” he admits.
‘Old Dusty Road’ is steeped in emotion and storytelling -– the narrative exploring the cancer diagnosis of his manager’s father. This made Agosta reflect on his life and what he would think and feel if that was him in forty years time.
“When we did ‘Old Dusty Road’, I just did a scratch track of it and everyone that I sent it to was like, ‘That’s it. That’s what you’ve been working towards’.”
Reflecting on this feedback, Agosta agreed it was exactly the sound he wanted.
“I wouldn’t change anything. Even if I listen to it now or other people listen to it now, I wouldn’t change anything”.
Alongside ‘Old Dusty Road’, the EP is the work he and his team have been wanting to put out into the world. “It’s going to be our biggest year yet,” Agosta says. “When we first got down to do it, it was early 2019 and we said, ‘We’re not ready for an EP yet, let’s just get into the groove’. And that’s why we did the covers.
“This let us get into the groove and figure out what to do; where to go right and where to go wrong. Then come this year, we felt comfortable with what we were doing and were like, ‘Ok, let’s do what we’ve always wanted to do when we started’.
“It’s exciting. It feels like a long time coming.”
Gio’s new single ‘Old Dusty Road’ is out now via streaming services. Keep up to date with the songwriter via his Facebook page.
